Consumer Psychology, B2C Marketing, Consumer Motivation
When you’re writing about consumer motivation day in and day out, you start to notice a few things. Namely, what components are taking center stage during the consumer buying journey to encourage conversions.
If something is motivating consumers to take action, you can rest in the fact that it’s worth paying attention to. Here’s a list of five motivating factors that influence consumer behavior.
1. Trust
Riddle me this: If you had to make a huge decision, how likely would you be to go further in the process without any guarantees you could trust you’d end up happy with the outcome?
Not very likely, right? Most consumers are the same way. Trust is a large motivation in their decision-making process, and it encompasses each of the components discussed in this blog. Consumers have to trust that the value of your products will be up to par, that your brand mission will line up with their personal beliefs and that you’ll be a good match for them culturally.
Trust is often closely related to the psychological principle of social proof, the idea that humans base their behavioral decisions on movements made by like-minded people. You’ve seen this through the form of influencer marketing, reviews and testimonials, word of mouth and other human interactions.
Distrust breeds fear, which breeds hesitation — something you don’t want to see if your goal is to motivate action in consumers.
2. Product value
There’s no ifs, ands or buts about it, consumers don’t want a product that fails to deliver on its promises.
If consumers are looking at your brand, it’s safe to assume it’s because they believe you have something they need, want or desire. Your product value is the determining factor in whether or not their belief is true.
Consumers often have an end goal in mind while shopping for products or services; it’s your ability to help them reach that goal that will motivate them to engage with your brand again and again.
3. Beliefs
What gets you up in the morning? What fuels your thoughts and actions?
Now that you’ve had time to think about it, here’s one more question: Would you support a brand that shared your same passions over one that doesn’t?
Most would. 71 percent of consumers prefer buying products from companies that share their same beliefs. Doing so allows them to feel even better about their purchases, knowing that the money spent is going to a brand that holds similar issues in high regard.
For many consumers, alignment is a matter of ethics. The ethical decisions made by a company are just as important as the value of that company’s products or services. In some cases, it’s even more important; consumers may even abandon a brand, no longer motivated to interact with them, if their morality is being called into question.
4. Culture
While I’m no poetry aficionado, I have always had a great respect for Maya Angelou and her love of the past. You may have heard her famous quote, “You can’t really know where you are going until you know where you have been.” When it comes to the consumer journey, no other quote rings quite as true.
A customer’s past — the people they’ve met, the experiences they’ve gained, the places they’ve lived — greatly influences the lens through which they see the world. Each decision they make is based on the sum of their experiences, or better yet, their culture.
Everything that people do happens within their cultural background. We base our decisions on the community we live in, our socio-economic status, and how we want to be perceived in the world — all major aspects of our culture. Having an understanding of your target audience and their cultural makeup will help you predict their future movements (how they’ll respond to a campaign, if they’ll classify a product as a need or something they can do without, what cultural value they attach to your brand, etc.).
5. Simplicity
No matter how much you love a topic, you probably wouldn’t mind hearing the bite-sized version from time to time.
This is because humans love simplicity. We appreciate when things come to us easily, and we’re much more motivated to participate in simple tasks than difficult ones. Consumers are busy people who don’t want to spend hours looking for and debating on products when they need immediate solutions to their pain points.
Simplicity also helps to eliminate fear of the unknown. When simplicity is present, so is clarity. There’s no getting overwhelmed by confusing marketing messages or complicated products, and you don’t feel the need to make a rash decision that you might come to regret later.
Connecting with consumers long enough to motivate action can require a lot of effort on your part, but can be much easier when you know what to look for. Motivating your customers is all about giving them more of what they want. These tips are just the start.
